A Wolf In Fawkes Clothing Part II
by the-kept
Summary: Hobbes and the Keeper become suspicious of Darien after his return...


"A Wolf in Fawkes Clothing"

Part II

Enter the Official's office (that day). Darien, Hobbes and the Keeper are seated in front of the Official who is at his desk. The Official is debriefing Darien.

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The Official:

"And your sure that you're ok?"

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Darien:

"Yes, Mom."

The Official gives Darien a passing glance and turns to the Keeper.

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The Official:

"What do you think?"

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The Keeper:

"Well he has no serious injuries other than a few bruises. However just out of emotional consideration I think it would be best to give him a couple days off, then ease him back into work."

Darien:

"Sir, if it's all the same to you, I'd like to get back to work. Ya know, maybe track down the guy who did this and well, share my feelings about the whole matter with him."

The Official:

"Claire?"

The Keeper:

"Due to his lack of injuries, this matter is entirely up to you, but I recommend that Darien follows my advice."

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Darien:

"Look I'll be fine, I just wanna get back into the saddle and put all of this behind me."

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The Official:

"Then it's settled. Darien will return to active status effective immediately."

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The camera moves in for a close up of Darien. He's looking down unconcerned, but at the Official's last statement he slowly looks up.

End Teaser

Act I

Enter all hallway in the Agency (the next morning). Darien is walking down it alone, Hobbes comes around a corner from behind him and catches up.

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Hobbes:

"Hey Fawkes, wait up."

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Camera angle is looking at Darien, Hobbes is visual over his shoulder. An angry snarl comes over Darien's face. He turns around.

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Darien:

"What's up?"

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Hobbes:

"What do ya mean what's up? The Fat Man offers you a couple days off and you don't take it. Did they beat you over the head with something when you were being held?"

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Darien:

"I just don't feel like taking any time of right now, I just want things to get back to normal."

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Hobbes:

"Come on Fawkes, you know better than anyone that nothing is ever normal around here. So tell me what's up with this, something's not quite copasetic here."

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Darien:

"Look Hobbes, nothing is going on except for me getting to work. Why don't you go bug the Keeper for a while and just leave me to it."

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Darien walks away leaving Hobbes in the hallway, Hobbes turns around and walks away.

Outside of the Agency. Darien is across the street at a pay phone. He picks up the phone and dials a number.

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Darien:

"It's me."

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Voice on the phone:

"What is your status?"

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Darien:

"I'm back on active duty, everything is going as planned. I'll call back at the next designated time."

Enter Stark's office (seconds later). Arnoud is seated across the desk from Stark. Stark is hanging up a phone.

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Arnoud:

"What is his progress?"

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Stark:

"He's successfully infiltrated the Agency. It should only be a matter of time before he completes his mission."

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Arnoud:

"He had better hurry. He has at best under two days to complete his assignment."

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Stark:

"And if he has to use invisibility to get the job done?"

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Arnoud:

"Then we don't have much time at all."

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Stark:

"And you're sure there wasn't another way of doing this."

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Arnoud:

"Positive. Reprogramming someone is difficult enough, but with the Quicksilver gland and the limited amount of time that I had, I had to…"

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Stark interrupts.

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Stark:

"You had to what?"

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Arnoud:

"I had to cut some corners. Normally reprogramming someone is a very slow process. It relies mostly on repeated imagery and your basic brainwashing techniques, but I didn't have enough time to do that with Fawkes."

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Stark:

"And what exactly did you have enough time to do with Fawkes?"

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Arnoud:

"I had to rely mostly on chemical inducement for the reprogramming. For a normal human being this would last longer but with Fawkes we have to worry about different chemical interactions."

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Stark:

"Quicksilver Madness?"

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Arnoud:

"Precisely. The madness acts as a neural disinhibitor or in lame men's terms, a narcotic. Once the Quicksilver in his blood stream reaches a certain saturation level it will begin to counteract the effects of the reprogramming."

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Stark:

"And just why couldn't you just give him a dose counteragent to slow the effects?"

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Arnoud:

"Because his Keeper would notice that he had he been given counteragent, and we don't want to make her suspicious.

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Stark gets up to leave the office, before he makes it to the door he turns to Arnoud and says:

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Stark:

"Keep me informed, and next time you had better be sure to tell me all of these little details before hand."

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Arnoud:

"If this works there won't be a need for a next time."

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Stark gives a suspicious grin and walks out. 

Enter the hallway outside of Stark's office. Stark is walking down the hallway, he is met by a Chrysalis agent.

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Stark and the agent begin walking together down the hallway.

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Agent:

"I don't like this."

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Stark:

"And what exactly don't you like?"

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Agent:

"This situation, he has to much control of this operation."

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Stark:

"I agree."

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Agent:

"So what do you want to do about it?"

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Stark:

"For now, I just want you to watch him, but tell me the second he does anything suspicious. One thing is for certain though, Mr. De'Fon is becoming to much of a liability."

Act II 

Enter the keep (Hobbes had just been in the hallway with Darien). The Keeper is sitting at the computer running some tests. Hobbes enters, looking over his shoulder.

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Hobbes:

"Hey Keep."

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The Keeper:

"Oh, hey Bobby, what's up?"

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Hobbes:

"I need to talk to you about something."

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The Keeper:

"Oh, what about?"

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Hobbes:

"Fawkes."

Enter a computer room seconds later (this is the computer room that was seen on The Importance of Being Eberts). The camera angle is inside of the room facing the door. You can hear the lock being picked from outside, the door opens apparently by itself and then closes. The chair in front of the desk moves out and then back in a little. Suddenly Darien appears in the seat.

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Darien reaches into his jacket pocket and retrieves a PDA he connects it to the computer and uploads a program onto the it. He then disconnects the PDA from the computer, quickslivers and leaves the room.

Enter a hallway in the Agency. Darien is walking and the Keeper comes from around a corner in front of him.

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The two stop in the hall and face each other for a second. The Keeper gives a caring but suspicious glance.

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Darien:

"Hey look Keep, I'm sorry for how I reacted yesterday. I was under a lot of stress and I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

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The Keeper:

"Oh, I understand. I know how difficult it can be to cope with some of the things that we encounter, especially in our line of work."

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Darien:

"Oh, uh, I'm glad that's clear, cause I didn't want anything to be awkward or…"

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Hobbes comes from around the corner. He stops to talk with Darien and the Keeper.

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Hobbes:

"Oh, am I interrupting something?"

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Darien:

"No, just hav'n a little chat with the Keep."

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The Keeper:

"No, nothing at all."

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Hobbes:

"Well I don't mean to butt in here Fawkesy, but I need to talk to Claire for a sec."

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Darien:

"Oh, that's cool. I've uh, got something to do anyway, I'll catch ya later."

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Hobbes gives Darien a nod of recognition then quietly under his breath says: 

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Hobbes:

"Count on it."

Enter the keep (seconds later). The door opens revealing Hobbes and the Keeper, they walk in, Hobbes checks over his shoulder.

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Hobbes:

"So?"

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The Keeper:

"I don't know Bobby, he doesn't quite seem himself, but unless we have some type of proof, let alone a theory on his behavior we really can't do anything about it."

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Hobbes:

"Well what are we supposed to do here? Just sit back and watch? Something happened to Fawkes when Chrysalis had him, I know it."

Enter a Chrysalis lab. Arnoud is working at a computer, there are two guards about ten feet away near a door. 

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The guards are standing at their post, when they get a message over the intercom near by. It's to quite to make out. The guards stand there listening to it for a couple seconds then leave the room. Arnoud notices and right after the guards leave the room he pulls a disc from his jacket pocket and places it into the computer. 

Camera zooms in over Arnoud's shoulder to see the monitor. A decryption program is running. Arnoud is busy typing away, constantly looking over his towards the door. Finally, he has access to the file he wants. A file pops up on the screen, Arnoud studies the file for a while, scrolling down to read it. After a couple seconds of scrolling, a picture comes up. The camera zooms closer to the monitor to reveal an image of Adam Reese.

Act III

Enter the Official's office. The Official is seated at his desk, Darien, Hobbes, and the Keeper is seated in front of him. Eberts is off hovering in the background.

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The Official:

"Alright people Chrysalis is on the move again. We have reports of Chrysalis activity at a warehouse a couple miles out of town. I want the three of you to investigate it."

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Hobbes:

"Sir, maybe Fawkes shouldn't tag along this time."

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The Official:

"Oh, and why is that?"

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Hobbes:

"Well Fawkes has been through a very traumatic experience and well I'm just not quite sure if he's ready to back into the field, against Chrysalis I mean."

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The Official:

"Darien?"

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Darien:

Yeah sir, I'd have to agree with Hobbes on this one. Maybe I should sit this one out and let Hobbes and the Keep check it out.

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Hobbes has a smug grin on his face, but at Darien's last statement he gets worried.

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Hobbes:

"Ya know on second thought sir, maybe we should bring Fawkes along. Ya know to face his fears or something like that."

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The Official:

"Why the sudden change of heart?"

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Hobbes:

"It's just gut instinct sir. I know my partner and…"

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The Official interrupts.

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The Official:

"Bobby, I had already agreed with your first suggestion. I'm not going to go back on my decision just because of your gut. Darien will sit this one out."

****

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Hobbes looks slightly annoyed, he looks over his shoulder to see Eberts with a slight grin on his face.

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Hobbes:

"And what are you looking at… Eberts? (angrily)"

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The Official:

"His new partner."

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Hobbes and Eberts:

"What?!"

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The Official:

"Think of him as your replacement partner. He'll just go along on this mission with you and Claire. Besides you could use the extra set of eyes."

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Hobbes and Eberts are both staring at the Official, shocked. After a few seconds Eberts starts to open his mouth to say something.

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The Official:

"Shut up Eberts. You three check out that warehouse and report back."

Enter the street outside the Agency, minutes later. 

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Hobbes, the Keeper, and Eberts are making their way to Golda. Their talking about something, Hobbes is going crazy as usual but their conversation is inaudible. 

Slowly the camera zooms out and begins making it's way up the outside wall of the Agency. A figure is standing in a window. 

Enter inside the Agency at the window. Golda can easily be seen pulling out and then driving off. The camera pulls back to reveal Darien watching them.

Enter the computer room. Again the door apparently opens by itself and closes. Darien unquicksilvers and sits down at the computer.

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Darien pulls the PDA from his jacket pocket and hooks it up to the computer. On the monitor the words "Download in Progress" can be easily seen. After about ten seconds Darien unhooks the PDA from the computer. Quickslivers and leaves the room.

Enter the Official's office, about as hour later. 

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The Official is playing his Gameboy, when suddenly his door is opened and Hobbes and the Keeper rush in. Before they enter the Official scrambles to hide the Gameboy.

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The Official:

"Doesn't anyone knock anymore? (mutters to himself)"

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Hobbes:

"It was a bust. (annoyed)"

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The Official:

"There was nothing?"

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Hobbes:

"Zip, zilch, nada. It was empty."

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The Official:

"Something's not right here. Our source has always been accurate."

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Hobbes:

"This stinks of a setup…(Pause) Where's Fawkes?"

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Suddenly Eberts rushes in.

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Eberts:

"Sir, we have a security breach!"

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The Official:

"What?"

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Eberts:

"Our system has been compromised. The was an authorized file transfer fifty minutes ago."

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Hobbes:

"Fawkes."

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The Official:

"You think Darien had something to do with this?"

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Hobbes:

"Chrysalis must've done someth'n to him when they had him. I knew there was something wrong with him."

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The Official:

"Do we know what information was compromised?" 

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Eberts:

"Not at the moment sir. They, uh, Fawkes used some type of encoding program to conceal what he stole."

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The Official:

"Hobbes assemble a team of agents, track down Darien. and Bobby, bring him back alive."

Act IV

Enter Darien's apartment (it's still trashed from before). 

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Suddenly the door is kicked open and Bobby Hobbes walks in gun drawn, a few agents scramble in behind him and begin to search Darien's apartment.

Enter the keep. 

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The Keeper is hard at work on her computer frantically going over Darien's test results. The Official walks in.

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The Official:

"Have you found out anything?"

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The Keeper:

"Possibly, I've been going over Darien's test results, especially the results of his neural activity and have been cross-referencing my findings with known medical conditions."

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The Official:

"Any matches?"

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The Keeper:

"Yes, I found a neural condition that was an 87% match to Darien's."

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The Official:

"What was it?"

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The Keeper:

"A rare form of brainwashing, it isn't used very much because it leaves traces of drugs in the subjects system, but with Darien the Quicksilver in his blood stream hid it from my initial blood workups."

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The Official:

"So you can't determine what drugs were used on him?"

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The Keeper:

"I can now, now that I know what to look for. In fact I had just finished the new test when you walked in."

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The Official:

"And what did the results tell you?"

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The Keeper:

"That the effects of these drugs are wearing off."

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The Official looks somewhat surprised at this last statement.

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The Keeper:

"This form of brainwashing depends on massive amounts of drugs to reinforce the reprogramming. Now for a normal person this would have a longer effect, but as Darien is getting closer to Quicksilver Madness the drugs are being counteracted by the more potent narcotic in the Quicksilver."

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Hobbes walks in.

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The Official:

"Anything?"

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Hobbes:

"We didn't find a thing. Fawkes could be anywhere."

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Suddenly Eberts rushes in.

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Eberts:

"Sir, you have a phone call."

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The Official:

"Not now Eberts."

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Eberts:

"It's Arnoud."

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The Official takes the phone.

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The Official:

"What do you want."

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Arnoud's Voice:

"A trade."

To Be Continued…

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End file.
